Hiding My Twin Pups From their Alpha Dad novel Chapter 97

Eva was gone.

Tiana was the first to notice. She burst into Max’s cabin, her voice frantic. “She’s not in her room. Her scent ends at the edge of the clearing.”

Max sat up, pale and stunned. “She ran again?”

Dany stood behind Tiana, already pulling on his boots. “No guards saw her leave. No notes. No word. She vanished.”

The whole pack stirred into motion, but Tiana and Dany knew where to start. They tracked her scent through the forest, past the border lines, until it reached the old trails—the ones Eva hadn’t walked in years. The ones that led to the lake behind her childhood home.

Tiana paused, breath catching in her throat. “She used to come here when she needed to think. When everything got too loud.”

“She’s not just thinking,” Dany murmured. “She’s breaking.”

When they reached the clearing, they stopped. The early morning mist curled above the lake’s glassy surface. And there she was—Eva—kneeling at the water’s edge, her arms wrapped tightly around her knees, her face hidden in her hands.

Tiana took a step forward but Dany grabbed her arm. “Wait.”

From the treeline, a figure emerged.

Sylvester.

He moved slowly, deliberately, as if he’d known exactly where she’d be. His dark clothes contrasted with the soft blue morning. But there was no arrogance in his steps. No threat in his voice when he spoke.

“You ran from your wedding,” he said softly.

Eva didn’t look up. Her shoulders trembled as another sob slipped from her lips.

Sylvester knelt beside her, not touching her, just watching. “That means something.”

Her voice cracked when she replied. “It means I’m scared.”

He tilted his head. “Of what?”

“Of you,” she admitted, her body shaking. “Of this… of all of it. Of loving people I can’t protect. Of carrying something inside me I can’t understand. Of losing everything I’ve fought for.”

Sylvester was quiet for a moment. Then, he reached out—not threatening, not forceful—and placed a hand gently on her belly.

Eva flinched at first, but didn’t pull away.

“I can hear them,” he whispered, voice almost reverent. “One heartbeat strong and proud. The other… irregular. Faint but ancient. Like it doesn’t belong to this world.”

Tiana’s eyes narrowed. “She’s too close to him.”

“She’s broken,” Dany said gently. “Sometimes when everything falls apart, even the devil’s hand can feel like comfort.”

Back at the lake, Sylvester stood slowly and offered Eva his hand. “Come with me.”

She shook her head. “I can’t.”

“I’m not asking you to betray them,” he said. “I’m asking you to remember who you are… and who you’ll need to become. The people who love you can’t see the darkness in you. But I do. And I’m not afraid of it.”

Eva stood up on her own, not taking his hand. “That darkness almost killed me.”

“But it didn’t,” Sylvester said. “And it won’t. Not if you learn how to wield it.”

Her hand trembled as she placed it protectively over her stomach again. The wind moved through the trees like a whisper. She turned her face away from him and toward the water again, a storm in her eyes.

And she whispered, so quietly that it almost didn’t reach him:

“You were always meant to create destruction… and I was meant to help you finish it.”